Shadow Foreign Office Minister: Government must do more to raise concerns over Uganda’s anti-gay law
PinkNews Exclusive
Labour’s Shadow Foreign Office Minister Kerry McCarthy has condemned Uganda’s anti-gay law, saying the Government must do more to voice its opposition to it during a visit by President Yoweri Museveni.
President Museveni arrived in London yesterday and has met with UK ministers, officials and corporate executives as part of a Pro-Ugandan business forum hosted by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
On Wednesday evening, he gave a speech at a venue in Buckingham Gate, Westminster.
Labour’s Shadow Foreign Office Minister, Kerry McCarthy MP said: “The new anti-gay laws in Uganda are putting the lives and liberty of LGBT people at risk, as well as turning the clock back on efforts to tackle the AIDS epidemic there.
“The UK Government has rightly expressed grave concerns about this, but it must continue to raise these issues directly with the Ugandan Government.
“It is vital that Foreign Office Ministers now use the occasion of President Museveni’s visit to make clear that Britain condemns the mistreatment of LGBT people in Uganda, and press upon him the need to take urgent steps to repeal the relevant laws immediately.”
On signing the law, Mr Museveni defended it by saying that gay people give each other worms through sex.
He also described gay people as “disgusting”.
The World Bank, along with Sweden, Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands, all halted aid to the Ugandan Government as a result of the decision of President Museveni.
The UK Government said that none of its aid goes directly to the Ugandan Government.
